Apartment Still Doesn't Have Heat After 4 Days But It Does Have Noxious Burning Smells

Dayva has written in an update about her landlord and heating issue. They don’t have heat yet, but they do have a power strip that’s been slowly melting itself into goo!

Since writing you, we have decided to stop contacting the management company and only call the city. Since then I have called 311 a few times regarding my case and they keep saying that someone should call me “soon” although, they don’t know the exact time frame. To some people soon could be an hour, or a week, depending! Today I sent the management company a notarized letter by certified mail, detailing everything that was wrong with the apartment, and the date that I would like the heat repaired by, because several people had told me to do this in case it was necessary at any point to go to court, even though that seems like total overkill.

We also discovered that the strange smell was coming from a power strip that was plugged into the same outlet as the heater had been. We had been told that the problem was with the wiring in the heater, not in our house. The power strip had been slowly melting, causing the smell. It’s a wonder our place did not go up in flames. We believe this to be due to a known electrical problem with the whole building that has not been fixed, even though the management has known about it for at least a month.

So, I have not heard from the management company after deciding to no longer reach out to them. It just blows my mind that they know we have no heat, and have not done anything about it, or even called me. Thankfully today it’s about 60 degrees, but at night it still looks like it will be around 30. Anyways thanks for the help!

PS – to give clarity on the hasidic Jew Issue (saw a few interesting comments about that one) – I had been told in the past by a non-Jewish electrician who was employed by the company that he was not allowed to work on Saturdays. I am not anti-semetic – I myself am a reform Jew.